


Mirror Image

by janetcarter



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Blood, Deep Scans, Gen, Post-Canon, Taunting, Telepath Resistance, Telepathy, Unhealthy Obsession With Delenn Squad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22923940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janetcarter/pseuds/janetcarter
Summary: Lyta is suspicious when Lennier kneels on the base's floor, ready and willing to serve her cause, and there's only one way to know if he's telling the truth.
Relationships: Delenn/Lennier (one-sided), Lyta Alexander & Lennier, Lyta Alexander/Delenn (one-sided)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Mirror Image

**Author's Note:**

> According to JMS, Lennier joins with the Resistance while on the run. It seemed like an odd decision at first, but he and Lyta have almost too much in common. 
> 
> Written for the Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt "Handcuffed/Manacled."

They bring Lennier to her with his arms restrained behind his back.

It isn't that she doesn’t expect this kind of ruse, but it's still a surprise to see him fall to the base's cracked tile flooring, bowing his head like it’s an average day on Babylon 5. 

An associate hands her his pike.

"Did she send you?" Lyta finally asks. She's confident she already knows the answer. After all, what would a Minbari Ranger, more importantly one who's been Delenn's lapdog for years, want with the _human_ telepath resistance? 

"No." He shakes his head, crowned despite being a peasant on her throne-room floor. There's a slight tremble to his voice, like that one word is only the tip of an iceberg hiding beneath frigid waves. His gaze slowly rises. "I came to help."

She almost laughs, but she can't not be intrigued.

"You know I'm going to have to scan you, right? If you're lying, there _will_ be consequences."

"Do as you wish."

Either he's telling the truth or he's been trained, brimming with weakly threaded “memories” to lead her people off the ISA's trail. Delenn couldn't be thoughtless enough to think that’d work, could she? Well…

She shoots her sharp gaze through his thoughts.

It takes some effort at first to navigate a Minbari mind. Despite her enhancements she doesn't have much experience with their twisted pathways and specific neural frequencies. It gets easier, though, and she can't say she minds the discomfort on his face.

There's an abundance of boring everyday to sort through first, but when she gets the hang of it his thoughts open up to an incident on a White Star that makes everything clear.

Sheridan was dying. The choice weighed in Lennier's mind for hardly a flicker. She managed to make out the blur beside Sheridan as another Ranger, which she supposed should call into question Lennier's loyalties, but… he'd never been a Ranger at heart, had he? It was only ever for Delenn, just like everything else he’d ever done in any other moment.

But there, it was _easy_ to run away. It was harder to let the guilt sink in and recognize how much it'd hurt Delenn to find Sheridan’s corpse blue and lifeless. It was harder to go back, and it was too late for his own narrative once he had.

Maybe that's what he was doing here. He didn’t come due to an intrinsic selfless desire to help, and really if that’s what it were it'd only make her more suspicious. Delenn, despite her refusal to confront her mistakes head-on, sympathized with their cause just enough to catch Lennier's eye.

And it was probably a satisfying blow to Sheridan, too. Whether or not the ISA were truly off their backs at this point didn’t matter. Lennier had an opportunity to do good in a place where Sheridan fucked up. How could he resist? 

It's almost funny. She hadn't expected it from innocent Lennier, the same enamored little aide who would bring her tea while conducting business with his master. He was always so compliant, so _useful._ But you can only grin and bear it so long when the people you’d die for will never, ever love you back. Delenn especially had a knack for attracting pawns and showing no mercy when throwing them across the board. 

He'd come so close to realizing it, to embracing the fact that to love Delenn is to chug a bottle of poison and thank her for rotting your organs. But he still thinks the only toxins flowing through him are his own shameful desires. He holds himself to a standard of purity no living thing could ever truly achieve. 

Really, it was no wonder he snapped.

Too bad he hadn’t succeeded. Sheridan’s connection to the vorlons made him annoyingly immune to her own attempts to end his life. There might not have been another chance that perfect. 

So, if Lennier is still intent on being a pawn… she might just have a job for him. 

It’d take a lot of work. He's still sick enough to do anything to win Delenn’s heart. But that was the strange thing: Delenn had offered forgiveness. He just feels like he hasn’t _earned_ her generosity. Maybe he'd earn it by ratting out Resistance secrets to her precious husband. Maybe he'd earn it by doing good for their cause to compensate for all of Sheridan's messes. Only time would tell.

But with that time, maybe she'd be able to mold him into someone who actually knows what they deserve; someone who acts on their own desires without trying to bury the one moment of agency they'd ever let take hold; and someone who knows it isn’t forgiveness they have to earn. It’s an apology they have to _take._

She grins as he slumps forward, blood trickling from his nostrils. 

"What was that old saying?" she asks, lightly tapping her palm with his pike. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend?"

"Sheridan… isn't my enemy."

"He is now." The cuffs clink as she snaps them with her mind and gently lifts his chin. With her free hand, she holds out his pike. "Welcome to the Resistance… _Mr. Lennier."_


End file.
